We sent out what looked like a textbook entitled ‘Erasing Cyberbullying’ to every school in Australia. When teachers opened the book, they found a USB stick shaped like an eraser: on it were comprehensive free resources to help effectively erase cyberbullying from their school, packaged as a curriculum – complete with lesson plans, class projects, teaching aides and animated case study videos broken up into three different modules: Cybersafety (years 3-6), Cyberbullying (years 7-9) and Sexting (years 10-12).

Australian students are living increasingly digital lives. While this leads to many amazing opportunities and advantages, it’s seen a dramatic rise in cyberbullying. As media reports of the issue have increased, so has the pressure on teachers to deal with cybersafety in schools.As a telecommunications provider, Optus felt duty-bound to help Australia’s time-poor and resource-stretched teachers respond to the pressure of tackling the issue in schools. Together with long-term partner Kids Helpline, they briefed us to create a pack that would give teachers a free resource to teach cybersafety in the classroom.

The pack was delivered to every school in Australia, reaching a potential 3.5m children. PR coverage was valued at $364,375, including leading current affairs programs. The pack gained the attention of Government. Alex Hawke, MP & Deputy Chair of the Joint Select Committee on Cyber-Safety, described it as ‘ahead of its time’. Most importantly, it was widely implemented by teachers. As one example, Cay Camden, School Counselor at Oakhill College, said: ‘Presenting this package to our students has opened up conversations about cyber-bullying & sexting that students have not felt comfortable sharing amongst their family or peers.’

We needed a DM pack that would work within our broader ‘Make Cyberspace a Better Place’ campaign, and serve the pragmatic purpose of housing our teaching aides.The pack also needed to cut through all the communications and general clutter that surround schools, to ensure we got the attention of teachers and curriculum planners. After all, we’d fail unless the contents of the pack were implemented. Designed this way, the pack served as a metaphor for how we had simplified the complex task teachers faced in tackling the issue of cybersafety in schools.